The Activist Potential in the Practice of Tessa Boffin: The Cyclical Nature of Art and Politics.

Tessa Boffin (1960-1993) was/is a British ‘queer dyke’ photographer working throughout the 1980s and 1990s, predominantly in London, against the backdrop of Thatcher’s Conservative government (1979-1990). Throughout her career, she challenged many political topics through intellectually rigorous photographic, curatorial and written work. This was a central period of LGBTQ+ activism and as such, inspired much cultural production and the expanding of Queer visual cultures. Boffin’s work focused heavily on the HIV/AIDS crisis and Section 28 activism and further tackles theoretical topics such as lesbian representations in the archive, gender non-conformity, and sex positivity.

Boffin is also known for co-curating and editing the exhibitions and publications: Ecstatic Antibodies: Resisting the AIDS Mythology (1990) and Stolen Glances: Lesbians Take Photographs (1991) with the photographers Sunil Gupta and Jean Fraser respectively. Boffin’s photographic work predominately takes the form of the staged tableau image. She staged models in the guise of angels, sex-workers, and medieval knights, among others. She was also a prominent figure in lesbian SM scenes and towards the end of her life began to experiment with performance.

Boffin’s important contributions to LGBTQ+ political activism through visual cultures remain understudied, despite recently gaining commercial and scholarly interest. Much of Boffin’s archive is held at UCA Farnham and this collection has been invaluable to this research. I aim to explore the influence of her practice both during the period she was working, and in our contemporary political climate in the U.K. This written thesis will explore her ‘archival turn’, sex radical position, iconography and mourning as sites of radical action within her creative space and will investigate how the staged image creates a liberatory space for queer activism in Boffin’s practice.

Emily Patten’s research is supervised by: Dr Sunil Gupta, (Professorial Fellow of Photography, UCA Farnham); Professor Anna Fox (Professor of Photography, UCA Farnham); and Dr Caroline Molloy (MA Photography Lead & Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Lead, School of Creative and Cultural Arts, UCA Farnham)

This research has been made possible with the assistance of the University for the Creative Arts Vice Chancellor PhD Studentship in photography.